No dumb luck: Metro claims safety success

Stephen Cauchi -Feb 14, 2013

Killer jingle ... Dumb Ways to Die characters show off their idiocy.

Metro's quirky Dumb Ways to Die campaign – which has amassed 40 million hits on YouTube after going viral – has cut the number of "near-miss" accidents by more than 30 per cent, according to the rail operator.

The campaign, launched in November, is also being expanded into schools and may be licensed by overseas train operators.

The campaign theme song Dumb Ways to Die features a three-minute music video of 21 cartoon characters dying through stupid mistakes, such as swimming with piranhas. Three of the characters die after being hit by trains.

"Although it's too early to be confident of a sustainable reduction in near misses, the early signs are encouraging," said Metro's manager of corporate relations, Leah Waymark.

"The biggest improvement was in the number of collisions or near misses with vehicles and pedestrians at level crossings."

Ms Waymark said that for November to January 2011/12 there were 13.29 near-misses per million kilometres travelled by Metro trains on Melbourne's suburban train network.

For November to January 2012/13 – after the campaign started – there were 9.17 near-misses per million kilometres.

"We are printing a small book for schoolchildren, which will support the work of our community education unit who go out to schools and speak to students and also have a game application in development," Ms Waymark said.

"In terms of global interest, we have been approached by universities and television programs as well as several companies... including a number of overseas railways," she said.

"They are interested in learning about, and in some cases licensing, Dumb Ways to Die."

The campaign was created by Metro's ad agency McCann Melbourne. The song was written by Ollie McGill from Melbourne band the Cat Empire. It was sung by Emily Lubitz, lead singer of fellow Melbourne band Tinpan Orange.

The song lyrics were written by John Mescall, Executive Creative Director of McCann.